A5 Podcast

Pastor Jon Rush joins the A5 Podcast to explain how the church can use AI, and why "you need to use AI until AI starts using you."

Jon is a pastor and Christian creator with a background in larger ministries. He's building Vice City Church, a digital church inside GTA Online, and helps churches and organizations grow online. He talks about using technology as a tool for the gospel without letting it run your life, why paper Bibles may become valuable again, and how to hold grace and accountability together when church leaders fail. He also covers why someone can be "disqualified from ministry" but "not disqualified from purpose," how to stay faithful to the church instead of deconstructing, and his aim to amplify compassion without softening conviction.

0:00 The Church and AI

3:45 Tesla, Prepping, and Wisdom

6:17 Why Keep Paper Bibles

9:08 Informed Versus Obsessed

11:29 Grace When Pastors Fall

28:33 Embracing God's Sovereignty

34:25 Vice City Church in GTA

38:21 Where the Church Was Silent

40:06 Pastors and the Algorithm

45:57 Conviction Paired With Compassion

On this episode of the A5 Podcast, we traveled outside Florida for the first time to sit down with Pastor Jon Rush in Nashville. We talk about why he went all in on the online space when the church ignored it, how World of Warcraft became his community through his parents divorces, and his real reaction to the GTA 6 gameplay.

We also get into gray areas like media, alcohol and nicotine, why blanket answers don't help anyone, the difference between nuance and ambiguity, whether Christians should make money, and what it means to build an ancient future.

The A5 Podcast hosts discuss Netflix’s Death of a Pastor’s Wife, the story of Mica Miller and JP Miller, and what Scripture teaches about pastoral qualifications, church leadership, accountability, and disqualification from ministry.

00:00 Intro

00:27 Why Death of a Pastor's Wife is trending

02:12 What 1 Timothy 3 says about pastors

03:37 The Mica Miller story

04:58 Relationships built on an affair

06:21 Why people stay in abusive relationships

13:02 Disqualified from ministry vs. disqualified from purpose

24:45 Why fallen pastors won't step down

31:02 Misplaced nobility and staying silent

38:49 What redemption looks like for a pastor

The A5 guys break down the 5 signs of the end times found in Matthew 24, including false prophets, wars, earthquakes, Christian persecution, the global spread of the Gospel, and why AI and social media could change how biblical prophecy unfolds.

00:00 Intro

03:47 False prophets

04:52 Wars, famines, and earthquakes

06:51 Persecution and falling away

08:47 Gospel through social media

10:27 AI and the Antichrist

20:22 No one knows the day

25:25 C.S. Lewis and Blaise Pascal wager

27:57 Idolatry and natural disasters

35:19 Faith experiment clip

Pastor Matt Boyle leads Sozo Church in Miami. He is originally from England, and three years ago he moved his wife and three children across the world to a city he had never set foot in, because he believed God told him to.

In episode 100, we get into why a whole generation stopped dreaming, why the church turned ambition into a dirty word, and what separates godly ambition from the kind that runs people over on the way to the top.

Matt makes the case that failure is not the sin, low aim is. Then he tells the story of a drawing he made as a six year old that he did not understand until his mom put it back in his hands.

0:00 One hundred episodes in

2:51 England to Miami with three kids

5:07 Why this podcast almost ended

7:28 Are Christians too ambitious or not ambitious enough

11:13 Low aim is sin

16:06 Has the decline of faith taken hope with it

24:05 Greetings, mighty warrior

26:34 You are what you eat

30:41 You're not too far gone

38:08 Where we went wrong with the word ambition

41:34 My way or God's way

44:14 Ambition without correction

46:42 Rebuked for having no ambition

49:57 The picture he drew at six years old

51:29 Let the fire get lit again

The A5 Guys break down how modern-day idols can quietly take priority over God, why working for God is different from spending time with God, and how Christians can build a deeper devotional life.

0:00 Intro

1:22 Pastor Torin Wells clip

4:20 Convicted about making time

9:47 Support the podcast

10:45 Working for God vs devotion

12:57 Reading the Word for work

17:29 New season, private prayer

22:10 Idols on the heart's throne

25:07 God isn't on the list

27:05 We all have idols

The A5 Podcast hosts Alessandra, Renee, Richard, and Alex explore Christianity, faith, relationships, culture, and difficult questions about following Jesus, using Leo Skepi’s comments about God and the universe as the starting point for a deeper conversation about grace, repentance, justice, and salvation.

00:00 – Intro

00:35 – Reacting to Leo Skepi

01:55 – God isn't watching to judge

04:12 – The river left Eden first

07:10 – Justice, mercy, and grace

11:57 – Why Christians still suffer

14:20 – Heirs, not earners

18:18 – Surprised who's in heaven

20:38 – Faith is not a bubble

23:54 – Shift your perspective

Alessandro, Rene, Richard, and Alex discuss Christian dating boundaries, kissing before marriage, sexual temptation, purity, accountability, hookup culture, and how couples can honor God while navigating physical attraction.

They discuss:

◼️ Why Christians should flee sexual temptation instead of continually putting themselves in situations where they have to fight it

◼️ How kissing and making out may not inherently be sin but can create physical temptation that pushes couples beyond their intended boundaries

◼️ Why accountability and honest conversations with trusted people are essential when trying to maintain purity while dating

◼️ What sex within the covenant of marriage means from the biblical perspective discussed in the episode

◼️ How shame and guilt from past sexual mistakes can make you feel disqualified from your purpose, and why those mistakes do not have to define your future

00:00 Intro

01:02 Boundaries and dating

06:05 Joseph flees Potiphar's wife

12:25 Dating differently after Christ

16:42 Setting hard boundaries

19:48 Sex is spiritual

21:28 Is kissing a sin?

24:25 The path to temptation

26:46 Sexual compatibility myth

34:51 Don't do long engagements

A5 Podcast hosts Rene, Alessandro, and Richard react to viral clips involving Kathryn Krick and debate whether the bowing, shaking, deliverance practices, and intense devotion surrounding her ministry point to biblical anointing, online influence, or serious spiritual red flags.

They discuss:

◼️ Why a rapidly growing or viral ministry is not automatically proof of biblical fruit or genuine anointing

◼️ How admiration for a pastor or spiritual leader can cross the line into idolatry

◼️ Why videos of followers bowing, shaking, and reacting intensely around Kathryn Krick raise concerns for them

◼️ How Jesus’ warnings about false prophets and Paul’s warnings about deception should shape Christian discernment

◼️ What Christians should examine before trusting a preacher, apostle, prophet, or influential ministry they discover online

0:00 Intro

1:13 Why we're naming her

3:06 Reacting to the clips

5:38 First reactions and red flags

8:11 Idolizing versus honoring leaders

10:49 Cult-like and false prophets

13:22 Deception and super apostles

17:45 Itching ears, false teachers

20:33 Judging by fruit, not platform

24:11 Final thoughts and outro

Alessandro and Rene debate whether women should preach and serve as pastors, breaking down controversial Bible passages about women remaining silent in church and examining what Scripture says about Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Priscilla, women prophets, and female leadership in Christianity.

They discuss:

◼️ Why Paul’s command for women to remain silent in church must be understood within its biblical and historical context

◼️ How 1 Corinthians describes women praying and prophesying despite Paul later discussing silence in the church

◼️ Who Phoebe, Priscilla, Junia, Deborah, and Mary Magdalene were and why their roles matter in the debate over women in ministry

◼️ Why Mary Magdalene being entrusted with the news of Jesus’ resurrection challenges the idea that women cannot proclaim the gospel

◼️ How Christians can distinguish questions of church order, leadership, theology, and character from a blanket prohibition against women preaching or pastoring

0:00 Intro

0:40 SBC bans women pastors

1:11 Christianity Today article details

2:31 Complementarian vs egalitarian views

5:04 Scriptures against women preaching

6:05 Historical context of Corinthians

10:06 Sponsor/support break

11:00 Egalitarian scripture support

15:32 Personal stories, female pastors

22:36 Biblical women & closing